This invention relates in general to wireless message communication systems, and more particularly to configurable datagram messaging between a server and subscriber units in a wireless message communication system.
Some conventional wireless message communication systems utilize a fixed datagram message in a communication protocol for transmitting message information between a server and subscriber units. The datagram size is normally set by the manufacturer of the subscriber unit based on a fixed memory size for the subscriber unit and fixed data element locations in the memory, and further on fixed data types and fixed data size per data element transmitted in the message. The type of information stored in memory for each data element and the size of each data element in memory has been normally fixed by the manufacturer of the subscriber unit. Therefore, the configuration of a message datagram is typically preset at a factory for each subscriber unit and is configured in each subscriber unit at the factory by a direct wired connection with the subscriber unit.
After configuration of each subscriber unit, a server for a communication system is also configured to communicate with each of the subscriber units according to the particular subscriber unit constraints. This configuration is typically done by technician manual entry into a server database for each subscriber unit. Subsequently, communication of message information from the server to a particular subscriber unit is handled via a message formatted according to a system-wide fixed datagram and using a communication protocol to wirelessly transmit message information to the subscriber unit in the communication system. Message information that is wirelessly received by a subscriber unit and determined not relevant to the particular subscriber unit is considered excess information and ignored by the particular subscriber unit while continuing to receive the remainder of a message. Unfortunately, the transmission of excess information that is not usable by particular subscriber units is inefficient and wastes precious bandwidth of a wireless communication channel. Further, each particular subscriber unit operates more than necessary to selectively receive and store its relevant message information that conforms to its particular constraints for memory and data storage therein. This tends to waste resources at the subscriber units, such as wasting battery power in battery operated units. Long battery life is a very important attribute for consumers of portable communication devices.
With the advent of more powerful processors and larger amounts of memory in subscriber units, there is a need to allow a more flexible means of delivering message information to such subscriber units, where the data capability and memory size of each subscriber unit can vary between subscriber units as well as over time for a particular subscriber unit. Thus, there is a need for enhancing the message information delivery efficiency of a wireless message communication system while allowing flexible handling of varying data configurations and formats for subscriber units.
The invention disclosed according to its inventive principles, achieves an efficiency in the wireless transmission of message data between a server and subscriber units where the amount and type of data useful to the various subscriber units varies. In order to achieve this efficiency, each transmission is adapted to the respective subscriber unit""s data capability profile, such as supported data types, number of data elements, size of each data element, and data type for each data element. Using wireless message communication, the server queries each subscriber unit and receives a data capability profile from the subscriber unit. By being able to store and update the data capability profile for each subscriber unit served by a server, the transmitted message information between the server and each subscriber unit may be personalized according to the subscriber unit""s data capability profile.